UMEM Educational Pearls

Category: Toxicology

Title: Tihkal - What does that mean

Keywords: lsd, alpha-methyltryptamine, AMT (PubMed Search)

Posted: 7/18/2013 by Fermin Barrueto, MD (Updated: 4/25/2024)
Click here to contact Fermin Barrueto, MD

The internet has become a wealth of information and some books have now gained internet noteriety. A chemist and author of the book - TIKHAL: Tryptamines I Have Known and Loved is an excellent example. 

Tryptamines include drugs like LSD and alpha-methyltryptamine (AMT). Vivid visual hallucinations and serotonin agonism, these drugs were glamorized by this author. He would synthesize a tryptamine and then "taste it". Take a look at the link below where he first describes the biochemical synthesis he performed then describes his dose response effect when he tried the drug.

If you run into a drug or slang term in the ED you are not familiar with, the website www.erowid.org will likely have the translation. 

http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/tihkal/tihkal48.shtml